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Hampton Court Concours, French and Italian

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This 1948 Simca 8 Sport Cabriolet prototype actually started life in Italy as a Fiat 1100S before being taken to France for use in the development of Simca’s new post war sports model. The coachwork was created in Italy by Stabilimenti Farina and differs from the later production version. The first private owner of the Simca was an American Army officer stationed at Friedberg in West Germany, which just happened to be the base where Elvis Presley served with the 3rd Armored Division. As he was also a friend of Elvis, the story goes that he deliberately chose a red cabriolet so as the red lipstick marks left by Elvis’s adoring fans would be less visible than they would have been on a white car!

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Another weekend, another country estate. This one actually a Palace, Hampton Court Palace, right on the Thames, and once the home of Cardinal Wolsey, an influential adviser to Henry VIII.

Whilst the main entrance to the Palace is from the Tudor period, the concours itself is held in the parkland in front of the Baroque part of the Palace built during the reign of William and Mary in the seventeenth century. It is a fantastic setting, not just because of the Baroque backdrop, but for the luxury of space to properly display the cars. [Read more…] about Hampton Court Concours, French and Italian

Hampton Court Concours, British and Other

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Wilhelm Schmid’s 1956 AC Ace-Bristol chassis BEX 148 was shipped directly from the Thames Ditton factory to Venezuela for Dr Oscar Lupi and was one of the first group of five models sent to the country through the importer and racing driver Juan ‘Jack’ Fernandez. Lupi planned to race the Ace so entrusted it to Karl Pentz, a German garage owner based in Caracas, who modified it, together with two other examples, to improve their aerodynamics, each example differing slightly from the next with BEX 148 gaining a lower Ferrari-like nose with cowled headlights. Wearing the racing number 139, Lupi campaigned the Ace extensively over four seasons, finishing fourth in the under 2.0 litre class at the 1956 Estado Carabobo Trophy in Valencia and ninth at the La Montana hillclimb in 1957. In 1958 he finished seventh at the Trofeo Shell and second at the same event in 1959. In 1960 he retired BEX 148 from racing haveing purchased another AC Ace-Bristol.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

We continue the Hampton Court coverage with British and other makes. A complete list of winners follows the photo gallery. [Read more…] about Hampton Court Concours, British and Other

A Whimsical Goodwood Revival

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Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

It is the attention to detail that make the Revival so special. Not just getting the right cars and drivers together, or even the racing itself, which is always superb. It is the little things, like the massive display of Sicilian Oranges and Lemons complete with a donkey to make you feel like you are in Sicily; the one-man band strutting his stuff as you cross the bridge into the event site; all the signs written in Italian, the warning signs from the Targa Florio telling you how to behave, pasted along the tunnel under the track, in Italian of course; the pit garages decked out with period Italian advertising; the grass area to the left of the main entrance made to look like an outside Pizzeria; painting the buildings to resemble a Sicilian town.

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Italian cars at the Goodwood Revival, Part 1

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1954 Ferrari 750 Monza, entered and driven by Franco Valobra.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

The main theme for the 2026 Goodwood Revival was ‘La Dolce Vita,’ celebrating 100 years since the founding of Maserati’s motorsport division with a daily track parade of the company’s racing cars. In addition, the Lavant Cup on the Saturday featured a grid made up solely of 1950s Maserati and Ferrari sports cars.

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Goodwood Driver’s Portraits, 2026

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Helio Castroneves

Photos by Jonathan Sharp

Jonathan Sharp as been photographing the drivers at both the Goodwood Festival and the Revival since 2013 (see link below). And aside from their awesome talent behind the wheel, almost all of the drivers share a bright smile, as if they are really, truly, enjoying themselves. And given the evidence over the past 13 years, we tend to think that this behavior is in fact an honest reflection of their feelings.

So enjoy another season of “Drivers” at Goodwood, thanks to Jonathan Sharp.–Ed.

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Salon Prive, 2026

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“Shipshape and Bristol Fashion”

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

I suppose it had to happen. After something like 50 days without rain in the area, and frankly, rather unpleasantly hot temperatures, Wednesday September 2nd dawned wet and cool in Brighton. But the weatherman said it would clear later, so off I went to the Prive Concours. Three hours later I pulled into the car park at Blenheim Palace just as it started to rain; the weather had decided to follow me north and stayed with me for most of the day.

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Enemies of The Drake

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Earlier this year, Jonathan Sharp had a chance to visit the Museo Nazionale Dell’Automobile in Turin and photographed this remarkable exhibition devoted to British Formula One teams that made life miserable for Ferrari in the 1960s through the 1980s. Per the Museo, “Enzo Ferrari used to call them, somewhat dismissively, ‘garagistes,’ the British teams that challenged Ferrari’s dominance.”

Titled “The Drake’s Enemies: Enzo Ferrari and the British Teams,” the exhibit opened on April 2 and will run until October 11, 2026.

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Shuttleworth Festival of Flight Airshow

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Lockheed P38L-5 SN 44-53254 Lightning. Pure poetry in motion, such grace, such poise, the elegant sound of the twin Allison V12s and definitely my highlight of the show. In fact I would go so far as to say it was one of the best displays I have seen for a long time, and I have been watching planes for many a year.

Story and Fantastic Photos by Jonathan Sharp

The final part of the jigsaw that is my month of visiting the stately homes of England was a visit to the Shuttleworth Estate in Bedfordshire for their Festival of Flight Airshow held over two days the same time as the Heveningham Hall Concours (June 26-28) so it meant another night in a hotel, which this time did have air conditioning as per the British summer of 2026 it was blooming hot. Unlike the October ‘Race Day’ event, the Festival of Flight is just an air show, but Shuttleworth being Shuttleworth meant there were still some interesting non aviation things to see before the flying commenced in the afternoon, as you will see from the following photographs.

As to the flying! What a show, hats off to the team that booked the aircraft. The start for many being an original Messerschmitt bf109 flown over from Germany and making its first appearance at a UK air show. My highlight however, has to be the aircraft from the Flying Bulls’ collection of Salzburg, Austria. It was a shame that the Grumman Bearcat could not make this trip, and their Corsair went tech (broke down) at their temporary base at Duxford on the Sunday, but never mind, we still had their P51, P38 and B25 to enjoy. I hope the following photos give you a taste of what was a great event.

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Fuori and Friends, 2026

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A Koenig Special, based on the Ferrari 348 complete with a twin turbo V8.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

For the past few years, the Villa d’Este Concorso has not been the only show in town as it now shares the limelight with Guglielmo Miani’s Fuori Concorso, which is held across three lakeside villas about a kilometer outside Como, all on the same weekend as Villa d’Este, (this year, May 16-17).

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The Magical Summer of a Maserati 6CM

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Photos by Jonathan Sharp

From the VeloceToday Archives, September 2019.

Count Trossi’s Maserati Summer of 1936

Lead photo: Ewen Sergison in the cockpit of Nigel Griffiths’ Maserati s/n 1532 at Goodwood, April 6-7, 2019. See below for much more.

Recently we republished an old story by Ed McDonough about Count Felice Trossi, which prompted a reply from Nigel Griffiths, who told us he owned the ex-Trossi 6CM Maserati and would be at the 2019 Goodwood Members’ Meeting in April with the very same Maserati, s/n 1532.

Now isn’t that coincidental, I said, as Jonathan Sharp would also attend and could he get some photos of 1532? Of course, said Nigel. Jonathan checked the program and found that the 6CM is car 58 entered into race 4 with practice is on Saturday morning, and the Parnell cup is the first race at 9am on Sunday morning. We are good to go.

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Concorso Anantara: The Show

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1957 Ferrari 500 TRC by Scaglietti

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

Saturday morning, April 18th, dawned bright and sunny, in fact probably a bit too hot especially as it is only April. Having spent Friday morning running up and down Via Nazionale followed by a full day of site-seeing in Rome, we decided to catch a taxi to the Concorso held at Casina Valadier, rather than take the Metro or walk, very reasonable at only 10 Euros.

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